Wednesday, October 19, 2016

I’ve written and re-written my “Hey, look, my blog is alive
again” post so many times it’s sickening.I’ve revised some of my published short stories fewer times.

Why is this post so hard? It’s not more personal than what I
pour into my fiction nor what I give to the authors I edit.

If I’m to guess, it’s because I’m afraid I won’t keep up a
schedule, that I’ll fail. I’ve dropped blogging so many times – though I do
enjoy it – to make time for paying projects and such. And when you drop or fail
something...and take a long time to get back into it, it’s So. Much. Harder.

That’s why, in horseback riding, when you fall off, you
should always get back on right away. The longer you wait when it’s been a
failure, a hurt, a fall, the more difficult it is to get back into the saddle.

Well, this is hardly the first, nor will it be the last blog
post where I intersperse some riding wisdom with writing wisdom.

Here’s another piece, just for today:

Even a short ride or short interaction is worth it.

In writing, once you’ve been away from a project, you lose
passion. It’s easy to forget it and keep putting it off. Same lesson...

Sometimes just making yourself write one sentence, edit one
paragraph, re-read one page is a good start. Just keep at it.

I had one author friend who could only squeeze in one
sentence a day. That’s all. Then she finished the story.

If you want to write, if you want to market, if you want to
accomplish anything... baby steps are okay. Just keep making them.

My awesome/torturous/awesome-because-she-is-torturous riding
instructor once had me dedicate an entire class to mounting/dismounting. Calico
and I were having issues...and that was the baby step we needed.